The number of homes in the United Kingdom with a least one online video subscription service fell by almost a million in the first nine months of 2022. The increasing cost of living may have led many households to think again about how much they are spending on subscription services. However, there are signs that the attrition rate is slowing.
In the third quarter of 2022, 234,000 fewer homes in the United Kingdom paid for at least one online video subscription service. That is less than the loss of 488,000 in the second quarter or the 654,000 in the first quarter.
“The reason people are cancelling is the need to save money,” suggests Dominic Sunnebo, the global insight director at Kantar Worldpanel. “The most recent quarter saw two of the most anticipated releases of the year. They ranked as the top two most enjoyed pieces of subscription video-on-demand content during the period, and yet we still saw a continuation of the negative trend of the market getting smaller.”
Kantar tracks online video subscriptions through longitudinal surveys, with a panel of 12,000 people in the United Kingdom, boosted by a sample of 2,500 new subscribers each quarter.
The survey suggests that the number of online video subscribers is declining, as competition intensifies and living costs rise.
That said, around 19 million homes in the United Kingdom, about two thirds of households, have an online video subscription. The total number of subscriptions has also risen, as more services come onto the market, with many homes taking more than one, with an average of 2.5 services among those subscribing to an online video service.
Netflix accounted for almost a quarter of all households in the United Kingdom that changed or discontinued an online video service in the third quarter of 2022, with 45% of those leaving the online video subscription market altogether.
Netflix accounted for just 2% of new online video subscriptions in the United Kingdom, just ahead of BritBox. Disney+ took at 17% share of new subscriptions, Paramount+ had almost 25%, while Amazon Prime Video took over 29%.
The figures for Paramount+, which launched in the United Kingdom in June, include subscribers to Sky Cinema, who currently receive the service at no extra charge. The survey also suggests that 95% of Paramount+ subscribers were already subscribing to one or more online video services.
Amazon continues to gain video subscribers as part of a membership package of services including free delivery of many online purchases.
The percentage of new subscribers for Netflix was the lowest since Kantar started publishing its quarterly survey in 2020.
Netflix is hoping that a new subscription tier with advertising will not only offer a lower cost option for members that might otherwise leave but will also attract new subscribers.